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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30002976">Not Quite Over, Not Yet</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/2broke2simp/pseuds/2broke2simp'>2broke2simp</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hololive, Virtual Streamer Animated Characters</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Implied/Referenced Suicide</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 20:06:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,399</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30002976</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/2broke2simp/pseuds/2broke2simp</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Last of The Phoenixes. The last of a Reaper's duty. But maybe... not quite yet.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>37</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Not Quite Over, Not Yet</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So- I was looking through some old stuff- this was written like, right when I discovered a very depressing playlist and Hololive, so don't expect happiness.</p><p>So, yeah, WARNING: Very dark, mentions of suicide, just a lot of not fun. If you want to be happy, don't read this, please.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Phoenix sat alone on her roof, save for a pair of empty bottles and the half-full one in her hand. She looked out over the city below her, but she didn’t truly see it. The lights, the great towers, the lines and lines of houses and cars- they didn’t interest her. Nothing much did, these days. These years. How long had it been, since she’d taken part in the mortals world? Since Her brother’s-</p><p>She cut herself off there. No point in reopening old wounds- or widening ones that just- could not heal. There was no fixing being the last of her race- the last of a race of immortals. How her kin had soared in the early years, spirits of life, guiding lights to mortals everywhere. Oh, how they’d fallen- fallen from the skies, reborn and reborn, suffering again and again, falling, falling falling-</p><p>“You won’t come back.” The voice startled her away from the edge, her wings flashing red hot before she forced them to cool, “if you do it yourself- you won’t-” The Reaper didn’t finish. Of course it would be the Reaper. The Phoenix was the last of her kind after all. This Reaper's last charge before she could rest on her laurels, finally see what the world had come while she was guiding the Phoenix’s kin to the world beyond.</p><p>“I know.” Her voice was weak, and hoarse, and she hadn’t heard it for- for how many years? Not since the last of her kin had- not since she’d begged- not for thirty odd years. Not for a while. “I know.”</p><p>The Phoenix turned back towards the city, taking the small step back to the very edge, wings flaring on instinct to keep her balance, to prepare for a fall. For a moment, she wondered if she would spread her wings, or if she’d just let the gods decide her fate one, final time. </p><p>She laughed at that. How pitiful she must have looked to the spirit of death, so confident in her work, so dedicated she’d shadowed the Last Phoenix for thirty years, waiting for this moment. And opposite her, the spirit of freedom, of light, burnt and wasted on a thankless world, all but stepping into the Reaper’s arms.</p><p>“Can you- can we sit?” The Reaper asked for a pause- “Back- I mean- where the ground is more-”</p><p>The Phoenix turned back for a second, narrowing her eyes. Here was the Reaper’s crowning moment, and she was asking the other to- to what, be safer, to sit with her? The Phoenix snorted at that, and instead sat on the edge of the building, her legs dangling over, a half second from that final tipping point, when she’d-</p><p>The Reaper sat next to her, her knee pushing back on the Phoenix, stabilizing her. There was a flash of heat as the flesh of the reapers was charred, leaving only a grinning skull atop a skeleton, before the Phoenix restrained herself, pulling away from the other.</p><p>They sat in silence for a long moment, before the Reaper finally spoke. “It is beautiful, isn’t it? What they’ve accomplished with our gifts?” she asked, nodding towards the city.</p><p>“It’s ugly, and cruel.” The Phoenix replied, biting back worse words. If tonight was the night she found out if there really were gods, she’d at least do it with some honor, “I miss the trees. And when I get to the forests, I miss the plains, and when I get to those, I miss the people-”</p><p>“Do you truly? You have not spoken for-”</p><p>“I know,” the Phoenix snapped, becoming akin to a star for a brief second, the roof bubbling and boiling around her, the Reapers own bones charring and cracking under the heat, “I know how long it’s been. And I know you know- don’t think you lurking everywhere I go has gone unnoticed.”</p><p>“I- I was hoping you might speak to me. You- you seemed to need it, after Kirhaghl-”</p><p>“You…” The Phoenix took a long, steadying breath, forcing herself to keep still, “you think I wanted to talk to you? After I begged and screamed and begged for you to let him stay? After all of my kin you’ve- you’ve taken? You- your kind are jealous hags who-”</p><p>The Phoenix trailed off, unable to spit the worst of her insults at the Reaper next to her, not for lack of want, but because they kept getting tangled up, mangled in her head until they were nothing but gibberish she could not put to word.</p><p>“I- I am sorry.” The Reaper said carefully, though not nearly careful enough to disguise the hurt laced into her voice. “I- we- Reaper’s don’t get to choose who- who goes, in the end.”</p><p>The phoenix didn’t respond to that, turning teary eyes back to the city, forcing herself to look at the cold steel and jagged rock, the abandoned temples dedicated to Phoenix’s of old, and the glowing ones dedicated to the gods that had never served them, never guided them, done nothing but sit and wait and watch as their children wallowed in misery, as the undying finally found an escape from this cursed world.</p><p>“What- why are you here?” The Phoenix asked, shaking herself from the city. “To take me on? I know this is- this is where it ends. I can’t see anything beyond this. This is my final perch.”</p><p>“I am not.” The Reaper said, carefully.  “But I would... I’d like to offer you a chance.”</p><p>“To what? Wander for another thirty years? There’s no more of my kin to find- there’s no more spirits or dragons or- or anything. It’s all just black. There’s nothing left in this world for me.”</p><p>“Their kin- their ancestors live on. They are not the dragons or elves you once knew- but they are similar, in many ways.” The Reaper said, with a touch of a smile, “I-”</p><p>“I have seen them.” The Phoenix said. “I have seen their pitiful attempts at old magic- and their- their depraved ways. There is nothing in them that reminds me of their ancestors. No honor, no bravery. Just cruelty.”</p><p>The Reaper was silent for another moment. “There is a darkness that hangs over them. The same one that has since time immemorial, since the first of their people killed the second for a false throne. But there is more to them than that. More that you cannot see from your perches so high above their lives.”</p><p>The Phoenix was silent for a long moment, looking back towards the city. How long had it been since she’d truly walked with them? How long since they had looked to be more than ants to her, and all she had been able to see were their towering monuments to their own greed. “There is good and bad in all things. In this new world they’ve fashioned for themselves,” the Reaper said, “they try. That is all they can do, truly.”</p><p>“You know as well as I do that they need guidance. Come with me. Let us see them, one last generation, if you will. Take- take my hand, dear Phoenix, and let me show you the world once more.”</p><p>The Phoenix paused at that, turning to the Reaper, who was now standing, stretching out a hand to her. The Phoenix had been beaten by this world, extinguished and left to rot. But maybe- that was not the end. Maybe there was still a bit of flame in her soul. Or maybe it would go out, after one last look into their world.</p><p>The Phoenix took the Reaper’s hand, allowing herself to be pulled upwards, now nose to nose with her opposite. “My name- my name is Kiara.” the Phoenix said after a long pause, staring into the Reaper.</p><p>“Mine is Calli.” Was the reply. For a long moment- maybe a minute, maybe a day, they stood there, one watching the other.</p><p>“Show me- show me this world of yours.” The Phoenix finally said. “Show me what you see in them.”</p><p>And the Reaper, still clutching to the Phoenix’s hand, guided the pair off of that roof, and into the world below.</p><p>And in the back of the Phoenix's mind, for the first time in thirty years, the black veil was lifted, and she could finally see beyond that moment on the roof.</p>
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